Jean-Baptiste Goyet
Goyet provided illustrations and decorations for Le Bouquet du Sentiment, written by his wife, Eugénie (née Demiée, c. 1778-1865[1]).
When the younger Goyet showed an aptitude for drawing, his father sent him at the age of eighteen to Paris to receive the formal training that he himself lacked.
From that point, both Goyets regularly had works selected for exhibition in the Salons, as did Eugène's wife, Zoé, a portrait artist who specialized in pastels.
[6] Jean-Baptiste found a patron in Marie-Caroline of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duchess of Berry, who recognized and encouraged his early work and later made him curator of her renowned private gallery.
"[9] This small oil on copper painting, exhibited at the Galerie Lebrun[10][11] and at the Musée Colbert in 1829[12] before its inclusion at the Salon, was made into a lithograph by Alphonse-Léon Noël [fr],[13] and was later selected by Goyet as his contribution to the Exposition d'Amiens in 1845.
These included l'Histoire de la vie des artistes en quatre figures, with personifications of Hope, Melancholy, Discouragement, and Perseverance, at the Salon of 1842; l'Empire de l’or (1845), inspired by Boileau's epigram, "L'or même à la laideur donne un teint de beauté: Mais tout devient affreux avec la pauvreté" ("Gold gives even ugliness a complexion of beauty: But everything becomes awful with poverty"); and Allegory of the Second Empire, not exhibited at a Salon, but painted sometime between the ascent of Napoleon III in 1852 and Goyet's death in 1854.
"[17] (Verne also promoted the work of Jean-Baptiste's son, praising Eugène Goyet's Le massacre des Innocents, posthumously exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1857: "Never has this somewhat vulgar subject been treated more dramatically; the scene is vast, the episodes are numerous and varied, and render all the possible situations of this appalling butchery.
His series titled Une Famille Parisenne depicts a mother and wife sheltering anxiously in their home, then consoling and bandaging their heroic son and husband on his return from the fray.
In 1837, at a time when most artists would admit women to their ateliers only as models, Eugène and Zoé opened a new studio at 27 Rue de la Chausée-D'Antin to teach drawing and painting to female students.
Their eloquent report came down strongly in favor, but a vote of the membership, "considering that ordinary subjects of deliberation, foreign for the most part to the attributes of their sex, would be almost always devoid of interest for them, decided that this admission would take place only on an honorary basis.
A contemporary critic remarked that the works of Jean-Baptiste Goyet displayed "perhaps a less elevated and less deep talent" than that of his son, but possessed "charming grace and irony.
"[23] An obituary dismissed his lack of formal training, saying that Goyet "had taken lessons from the best of the masters, having always professed a deep admiration for the masterpieces of the great centuries in our country and abroad.
This exquisite feeling for the beautiful and the true is found in all the compositions of this hard-working artist, from those that signaled his debut to the works that marked the end of his career.
Eugène Goyet exhibited a portrait of his father at the Salon of 1833 (the year Jean-Baptiste turned 54), where it received a silver medal for portraiture.
[5] "A striking resemblance, great vigor of effect and execution, conscientious drawing," wrote one critic, "such are the principal qualities that can be seen in the portrait of M. J.-B.
"[25] This portrait was in the atelier on Rue de la Chausée-D'Antin at the time of Eugène's death and may have been included in the public auction of his estate in 1857,[5] but its current location is unknown.
